In the construction of a household refrigerator, it is often desirable to provide a partition within the refrigerator for separating the refrigerator into first and second compartments such as a freezer compartment and a fresh food compartment, for example. This invention relates generally to the compartment partition assembly and method and more specifically to means for providing improved thermal separation between the compartments in a refrigerator. The invention also relates to preventing air leakage gaps from developing between the partition and the liner of the refrigerator which are occasioned by the thermal variations of refrigerator operation or reasonable manufacturing dimensional variations. The invention also relates to providing a defrost drain system in the partition that allows a refrigerator having the evaporator in the freezer compartment to be defrosted and the liquid resulting from the defrost operation may be easily and effectively removed from the refrigerator.